Running Out Of Time-Complete-
by FallenQueen2
Summary: Nightwing traded himself for Robin and Batgirl to Poison Ivy to save their lives. Racing against time the team has to find him before it's too late. Lots of fluff at the end and some references to Teen Titan's Slade arches. Prior to season 2, Aqualad is still leader but Kid Flash and Artemis have 'retired' and Lagoon Boy isn't part of the team yet. COMPLETE


**Young Justice –Running Out Of Time- One Shot**

**Nightwing traded himself for Robin and Batgirl to Poison Ivy to save their lives. Racing against time the team has to find him before it's too late. Lots of fluff at the end and some references to Teen Titan's Slade arches. **

**Prior to season 2, Aqualad is still leader but Kid Flash and Artemis have 'retired' and Lagoon Boy isn't part of the team yet. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice or any of its characters. **

* * *

**Running Out Of Time **

"Let them go Ivy." Nightwing's grip on his escrima sticks tighter as he glared at Poison Ivy who had both Robin and Batgirl held upside down high in the air trapped in Ivy's thorny vines.

"Hmm I don't think so little bird." Ivy sang rising up between the two masked hero's on her vines.

"Well not so little anymore I guess, damn you filled in nicely in all the right places." Ivy racked her eyes over Nightwing's form and it took every well-toned muscle in his body not to shudder at the look in her eyes.

"That's mildly disturbing." Robin snorted and Dick had to bite back a grin at the mouth his little brother was developing. Dick would like to think he had played a part in that.

"What do I have to do for you to let them go free Ivy?" Dick asked his voice tight, he knew what he was getting into but for Babs and Timmy he would do anything.

"It is rather simple actually…" Ivy let a sly smirk spread across her lips. "An exchange, I'll let them go if you come with me instead."

"No!" Batgirl cried struggling more than before.

"Don't do it!" Robin added on wiggling around to grab onto a weapon.

"You swear you will let them go?" Nightwing asked letting his body relax.

"I swear." She purred.

"Deal." Nightwing dropped his escrima sticks to the ground with a clatter. Ivy waved her hand and the vines lowered Robin and Batgirl to the ground before they snaked over to Nightwing. The 17 year old stood there and let the vines wrap around his limbs lifting him into the air bringing him closer to Ivy.

"Nightwing!" Batgirl cried trying to get to her feet but falling down thanks to the injuries over her legs from the thorns on the vines, Robin was in the same situation as she was.

"Don't worry, you'll find me again." Nightwing smiled at them before Poison Ivy blew some pollen into his face, he inhaled and a moment or so his head fell forward as he passed out.

"I'll take great care of him." Ivy promised the duo on the ground as her vines lashed out at the glass ceiling above them. Laughing she rose high into the sky with Nightwing still tangled in her vines following behind her. The two bats could do nothing but watch, what a time for Batman to be off planet on a mission.

"Contact Aqualad, we need the teams help on this." Batgirl rubbed her masked eyes before looking over at Tim. "We are getting Wing back, the sooner the better. I hate the idea of that crazy women having her paws on him."

"On it." Robin nodded reaching for his communicator. "Robin to cave…"

"Hey Rob, what's up?" Beast Boy's voice came through the device.

"We need the team out to our location in Gotham ASAP." Robin ordered.

"Robin, what's wrong?" Connor's voice came through next.

"Just get here… It's Nightwing…" Robin trailed off noticing his hand was shaking, Babs crawled over to him taking the device.

"A fight with Poison Ivy went bad, he gave himself up to her to save us. We are injured and we NEED to get him back." Batgirl snapped into the device getting angry all over again.

"… Understood, we will be right there." Connor growled before cutting off communication.

"Well Ivy is good as dead, we both know how protective Connor and the others get of Wing." Robin said trying to cheer Batgirl up.

"When I get my hands on Ivy." Batgirl growled thinking of ways to make the plant wielder pay for taking Dick.

They heard the familiar sound of the S-cycle landing outside the building and in rushed Connor, Aqualad, Beast Boy and Miss Martian came running in. Miss M rushed over to the fallen teens with her brother right beside her to help tend to their wounds. Aqualad was beside Batgirl asking for a report on what exactly happened slipping into his leadership position easily. Connor was about to join the group when he noticed Nightwing' escrima sticks lying forgotten on the ground. He knelt beside them gingerly picking them up in his hands, he looked down and he couldn't help but remember that day when Nightwing and he trained with them.

* * *

_Flashback_

"_Hey Con, want to try something new?" Nightwing questioned Superboy as they trained together like they had been doing for the past few months, ever since Wally and Artemis 'retried' to live a 'normal' the two had gotten closer. _

"_Like what?" Connor grunted taking a break from the steel-enforced punching bag he was currently dismantling with his fists._

"_Catch." Nightwing tossed two black sticks towards the super-teen. Connor caught them and inspected them before realizing they looked a lot like Nightwing's escrima sticks. _

_"Escrima sticks?" Connor questioned testing the weight in his hands. _

"_Yup, thought you would like to expand your horizon's a bit. Just in case you can't use your fists or your feet for a fight. What do you say?" Nightwing took up his stance with his own sticks._

"…_Sure." Connor copied the stance and with smiles on both their faces they started to train, both of them using escrima sticks. Connor kept the fact that Nightwing had never trained anyone else in the art of using those sticks to him self; it was just something only those two shared. _

_End Flashback_

* * *

Connor slid Nightwing's escrima sticks into his cargo pants before walking over to join the others, trying to control his anger at Poison Ivy for taking his brother.

"And then she flew out of here with Nightwing in her vines." Batgirl finished saying as Connor joined them.

"We'll head back to the cave to deal with your wounds more in depth and formulate a plan on how to get him back." Aqualad ordered nodding at Miss Martian whose eyes glowed green and the two injured bats were lifted up off the ground easily.

"So uh… Who wants to com Batman?" Beast Boy asked as they sat in the bio ship heading back to Mount Justice.

"He doesn't really need to know does he?" Connor turned to look at the bats that were still floating to keep pressure off their wounded legs.

"He's the Batman, he'll find out and when he does it won't be pretty for anyone." Robin said wisely with Batgirl nodding along in the background.

"He's off world on a mission and if he knows that Nightwing is in trouble he will leave the mission and we can't risk that." Aqualad sighed knowing that the mission Batman was on was a high priority and needed to be completed correctly or there would be huge backlash from it.

"Miss Martian, please take Batgirl and Robin to the med bay and fix their injuries. I will call back in all away missions as finding Nightwing is our 1st priority." Aqualad decided as they all entered the main hall. Megan nodded and floated off with the two injured bats towards the med bay Beast Boy right on her heels as a panther. "Connor, contact the watchtower and inform them of our situation while I bring in the team."

"Sure, give me the easy job. If I come back missing a body part it's on you." Connor rolled his eyes thinking of how pissed Wonder Women, Zatanna, Rocket and the others will be when they find out.

"Why do you think I'm sending you boy of steel?" Aqualad smirked at Superboy who entered the Zeta tube heading up to the watchtower.

"**Recognized Superboy B-04."**

"Aqualad to Alpha and Beta teams." Aqualad hit a button on one of the many screens that were hovering in front of him.

"Wonder Girl from Alpha reporting."

"Blue Beettle from Beta here."

"Cancel all missions, get back to the cave ASAP." Aqualad ordered in a tight tone of voice.

"What's wrong?" Cassie asked.

"…Poison Ivy has Nightwing, he is our number one priority at this time." Aqualad said with a heavy heart. He heard gasps coming in from each com, he closed his eyes briefly. "Back to the cave ASAP,"

"Alpha team en route." Cassie reported.

"Beta's ETA two minutes." Blue added in.

"**Recognized Superboy B-04, Zatanna Zatara B-08, Rocket B-010, Wonder Woman 03, Black Canary 05." **The Zeta tube lit up and the announced hero's rushed over to Aqualad with Connor trudging behind giving Kaldur a look of warning.

"What happened?" The ladies all but screeched at Aqualad who held his hands up in surrender, but was spared as Alpha and Beta ran into the cave and he was overrun with questions.

"HEY!" Connor shouted. "Give him time to answer!"

"Thank you Superboy. From what Robin and Batgirl told us, they were fighting Poison Ivy in Batman's stead. Batgirl and Robin were injured and trapped by her vines; in order to save them Nightwing traded them for himself. He is now in the hands of Poison Ivy. We have decided not to tell Batman as we can not interrupt their mission off world." Aqualad explained calmly keeping his fists clenched to steady himself.

"Are Rob and Batgirl alright?" Blue asked worried.

"They are with Beast Boy and Miss Martin in the med bay, but they will be fine. We are putting all other missions on hold until we find and bring Nightwing home safely," Aqualad reported and he got nods of agreement around the room.

"Hold on… Has anyone told Wally, Artemis or Red Arrow about this?" Black Canary asked and everyone froze. "I take that as a no," she muttered rubbing her forehead.

No one wanted to tell the three about what happened to Nightwing. Even if Red Arrow was still searching for the real Roy Harper, he still loved Nightwing like he was his little brother and would kill anyone who even thought about harming him. Wally was Dick's best friend since they were young and even if their friendship was rocky since Wally and Artemis left the team for a normal life everyone knew that Wally would help Red Arrow kill anyone who hurt Dick. Artemis and Nightwing had an odd relationship to the people looking from the outside. They looked like they put up each other but the originals knew the truth, they were close as brother and sister. After all she was the 1st one who knew him as Dick Grayson and they became close during their school years.

"They are no longer part of the team, this is a team mission." Connor decided for the group, in other words the three would not be told of Nightwing's kidnapping. "Poison Ivy wouldn't take Nightwing out of Gotham, if Robin and Batgirl could help us out we can narrow down the list of possible places she is holing up with him."

A beeping sounded from one of the screens.

"It's from Nightwing's communicator!" Zatanna cried as she read whose com it was coming from.

"Nightwing?" She questioned worried as she answered it and Aqualad hit a button to track where the communicator was broadcasting from.

"Close little girl, very close." A female's voice filtered through.

"Poison Ivy." Zatanna growled. "Where is Nightwing?"

"Ah little bird? Oh he's around here someplace, not too sure where I put him." She giggled in a ditzy blonde sort of way. "Maybe this video will give you a clue, 6 hours left and the clock is ticking."

"In coming video." Bumblebee reported.

"Full screen." Aqualad nodded his head. The screen was filled with static before it came into focus showing Nightwing. His uniform was ripped in several places, mask still thankfully intact. Dried blood was on the side of his head and scattered along his body.

"Oh Hera." Wonder Woman covered her mouth at the sight of the teen that she loved like a son.

The camera panned out to show he was lying inside a wooden box.

"No!" Karen shouted at seeing the lid being nailed down trapping the hero inside and dirt hit the lid and it kept hitting it until the wooden box couldn't be seen anymore.

"I will rip her apart!" Cassie growled throwing a punch at the wall, leaving an indent and it took all Connor had not to do the same thing.

"Get in line." Wonder Woman agreed with Cassie.

"6 hours… 6 hours… That must be how much air he has left! We don't have any time to waste. We need Robin and Batgirl to do their tech thing and see if they can get anything off of this video." Mal stated looking at Aqualad who nodded before closing his eyes to tell Miss Martian what happened. The original team was now always linked together; it was a side affect of being linked so often and for long periods of time. It was hidden in the back of their minds and they could pull it forward when they needed to use it.

_"Miss Martin…" _Aqualad started.

"_I see it Kaldur, Gar and I will bring Robin and Batgirl back right now. They are unable to walk thanks to their injuries." _Miss M agreed.

"They are on their way." Aqualad reported and sure enough Beast Boy, Miss M and the two bats came into the main area the injured two being levitated into two chairs by the hovering computer screens. They watched the screen in silence as the video was replayed. The two bats stripped all emotion from their features reverting back to Batman's training.

"How are you not affected?" Karen asked wiping her nose on her sleeve.

"We were taught by Batman, sometimes emotions are needed but sometimes they can hinder your cause. If we were to start crying and get upset about Nightwing being taken we would never get him back." Batgirls explained as her fingers flew across her keyboard as she ran the video through a program to identify landmarks. "Now if I can analysis the dirt's color and cross reference it with all soil types in Gotham that should narrow it down."

"Besides, this isn't the first time Wing has been taken in Gotham, but this is the 1st time he traded himself for us." Robin told the others. "Since he was there since he was 9, the villains know him pretty well and don't tell anyone I said this but Cat Woman has a soft spot for him. I swear I saw her questioning him about his grades and scolding him if he got in trouble at school."

"Gotham, where the crazies live." Mal muttered shaking his head while Wonder Woman and Black Canary smirked at the mention of Cat Woman.

The trio all met up one time and made an unspoken pact to watch over Dick as much as they could. They were silently hoping that word had reached her and she too was starting a search for their missing bird. Sure Tim was Robin now but Dick will always be their little bird to them.

"Robin run down all Ivy's known hideouts and see if you hack into any security cameras, also see if you can follow them when they left the warehouse." Batgirl ordered Robin without looking up from her screen.

"On it." Robin nodded before his fingers too also started to fly over the keyboards in front of him.

* * *

Tense hours passed by as the two worked. Wonder Woman and Black Canary had a giant countdown on every available screen all over the cave and the watchtower, they sent out smaller teams to scout out areas of Gotham that Robin highlighted as possible places Ivy might have taken Nightwing. One of the original members were leading each party, since they couldn't just sit in the cave and wait while their little brother was slowly suffocating 6 feet underground.

"I've got it!" Batgirl cried as a result popped up from her search, she slid her finger over the screen and set it to Robin's computer and a few moments later a ding sounded saying that they found a match between the two searches.

"Nightwing is buried in the North-East Gotham greenhouse." Batgirl contacted the teams.

"En route now." Came the general response.

"Now what?" Robin asked Batgirl quietly as they watched their locations all converge on the greenhouse.

"We wait and hope that they leave some of Ivy for us to rip apart." Batgirl growls, her mind already coming up with ideas of how to get back at Ivy without killing her. Batman and Nightwing would never approve and she didn't want to get on their bad side no matter what.

"Breach now." Aqualad ordered and the teams who were all stationed at different entrance points all broke into the greenhouse. After seeing that Ivy was nowhere in sight they started searching for where Nightwing was buried.

"Over here!" Blue called, the scarab on his back had located a very faint heat source from underground a few feet away from the teen.

"Zatanna help me with this." Miss M called letting her eyes glow, Zatanna spoke a few words and working together the dirt flew up and away from the area Jamie had pointed to. Within moments they found the wooden box from the video, Connor and Kaldur jumped down in the ditch a second later prying open the box's lid.

"Nightwing!" Connor cried but he stood frozen as he and Kaldur gazed down into an empty, bloodstained box.

"Where is he?" Cassie asked. Connor inspected the lid more carefully and felt his stomach flip at the array of scratches that were on the wood. He slowly placed his hand on one of the scratches and had to stop himself from retching. Human hands created the scratches; Nightwing had been awake inside of the box and trying to get out.

"Not here… DAMNIT!" Connor cried throwing the lid across the greenhouse before falling to his knees feeling the escrima sticks against his thighs and that only increased the grief he was feeling. He could not bring himself to tell the others what he had found on the lid. He didn't want to believe it but he had seen it with his own eyes.

"There is a note." Kaldur reported grimly picking up a piece of paper that had been left in the wooden coffin.

"What does it say?" Rocket swallowed, dreading to know but needing too.

"It reads…" Kaldur cleared his voice to make sure it didn't catch to show how he truly was feeling. "Congrats on finding this box, but I do not plan on giving up my little bird this easily. Here is the next hint, where do birds like to go during the winter?"

"South, birds go south. Batgirl, Robin please locate all of Ivy's known locations in the south of Gotham. Someplace warm." Zatanna snapped her fingers before referring to Batgirl and Robin back at the cave.

"On it." Batgirl gritted out trying to contain her anger at Ivy.

"Got it, there is a greenhouse that has been shut down for months by the waterfront on the southern end of Gotham. The large heating bill it got a month ago doesn't make sense so that is a logical place to look next." Robin reported tightly.

"On our way." Aqualad nodded at the group and everyone moved out heading towards the newest location and hopefully this time Nightwing.

* * *

They arrived at the greenhouse and stormed the place not even caring about stealth as they were beyond that point now.

"Damnit! How are they not here?" Connor growled after the group searched the warehouse twice.

"I uh found this… I checked it out, it's not a bomb just a voice recording." Beast Boy extended his small green hand to show a tape recorder.

"Please everyone, brace yourselves…" Kaldur said quietly preparing himself for the worst. He only pressed the play button when he got nods from everyone in the room that they had prepared themselves.

"I have given my little bird a hallucination to help make his time go by faster. Enjoy." Ivy cackled before the recording turned to heavy panting.

"Wing…" Connor frowned; this was not good and if his suspicions were correct they would hear him trying to get out of the wooden coffin.

"_No! Not again! Tata! Mama! Don't leave me again!"_ Nightwing cried his voice breaking and the ones who knew about his parent's deaths all exchanged sad looks.

"_B! No don't! Please don't! Not again, don't please!"_ Wonder Woman frown deeply she knew B was what Dick called Bruce, what was that poor child seeing?

They heard a choked sob. _"Jay, Jaybird. Please open your eyes, please, please. No, no, no."_ He was now reliving Jason's death. _"I should have been there, I'm so sorry… So sorry…"_ He choked out and his voice broke off and all they could hear was Dick crying softy as the hallucinations played havoc on his mind.

"_No… No… NO! Get away from me!"_ Nightwing's panicked voice shouted startling all who was listening to the recording_. _

"_Stay away from me Slade! I won't work for you anymore! STOP IT! STOP HURTING THEM! STOP!"_ He shouted and they heard scratching on wood. Nightwing was clawing at the lid trying to get out.

"No, Wing." Beast Boy had dropped to his knees when Nightwing said Slade. "Not again, not him."

"Gar?" Megan asked gently and Kaldur paused the recorder.

"He has to relive what Slade did." Beast Boy muttered looking down at a small scar on his hand, the same one all of the original Titans carried. Those scars were created in the process of getting the probes out of their bodies so Slade couldn't control Robin again.

"Slade?" Megan pressed.

"It's not my story to tell… Just know that Wing has a past with him, one that he will never let go and it will haunt him forever as it is clearly shown." Beast Boy refused to say anymore and the others could see that.

"Do we have to finish listening to this?" Karen asked Kaldur looking green around the edges. "Fast forward to the end and I'm sure Ivy has left us some other annoyingly coded message."

* * *

"No need for that." A new female voice rang out; the whole group dropped into their fighting stances and looked up to where the voice came from.

"Cat Woman." Wonder Woman and Black Canary nodded at the leather clad cat burglar who was standing on the frame of a broken window.

"I hear you are searching for a little bird. Well join the club I say, even Harley wanted to help but being stuck in Arkham isn't letting her come out to help. " She sighed dramatically as she flipped down onto the ground by the team with her catlike grace.

"Do you have any idea where Nightwing is?" Diana asked worried.

"I have an idea, all I know is Ivy broke a rule and we are not impressed." Cat Woman growled just like well a cat.

"A rule?" Blue Beetle asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yes a rule. See when Nightwing was Robin, he was beaten nearly to death by Two-face and all us female villainesses made a pact. One that stated we would never harm Robin and never let him get that close to death again. Something is wrong with Ivy because she loves Nightwing like he was his mother, we all do. She would never have done this to him, so I'm here to help bring the little wing home and see if I can figure out what is wrong with Ivy." Cat Woman explained.

"How do we know you aren't making this all up?" Miss M asked warily.

"I've known Nightwing since he was nine, I was one of the ones he came to when he had girl trouble and he wanted to actually talk because we all know Bats isn't the talkative type. I let him name one of my cats for goodness sakes. Trust me, I want to save him." Selena said honestly.

"I believe you." Connor spoke up and Selena smiled bright at him.

"So you're Connor, nice to finally meet Wing's brother." She shook his hand and giggled at the stunned look on his face. "Like I said, I know Nightwing."

"So you said you know where he is?" Aqualad cleared his throat to bring them back onto the task at hand.

"Indeed I do, follow me and try to keep up." Cat Woman fired a grappling hook swinging out of the greenhouse, the team and leaguers hot on her heels. They followed the cat burglar to a rather populated area of the warehouse district.

"My sources tell me Ivy and Nightwing are inside." Selena whispered to the group as they all silently stood by the entrance of the warehouse.

"Let's make an entrance then. Zatanna would you like to do the honors?" Aqualad turned to the magician.

"It would be my pleasure." Zatanna cracked her knuckles glaring at the door in front of her that was separating them and Nightwing. With a few hushed words lightning erupted from her fingertips and the doors were blown off their hinges. From the smoke the team, leaguers and cat burglar entered the warehouse on a warpath.

The warehouse was covered in all sorts of plants and right smack dab in the middle was a huge throne made out of vines was Poison Ivy. Lying on her lap was Nightwing's head, her fingers stroking his ebony locks. He was lying on his back; one hand resting on his chest and the other arm was hanging down off the side of the vines he was resting on. His mask was still on, but only slivers of the white were showing signifying that he was conscious but totally alert.

"Nightwing!" Was the cry that came from the group.

"He can not reply as much as I imagine he wishes to." Ivy stated as she kept stroking his hair. "The pollen I injected him with keeps him paralyzed and very compliant."

"Why, why are you doing this?" Selena called out stepping towards Ivy and Nightwing. "Don't you remember our pact to protect him? Don't you remember those times he learnt at your side about different types of plants so he could keep out of the way of the more dangerous ones. How could you do this to him?"

Ivy frowned and started to blink rather rapidly, her free hand going to her head grasping it in confusion. "Why? What am I?" She muttered confused as hell. She looked around and blinked in utter shock at the limp form of Nightwing lying on her lap. "Little bird? What? Why?" She suddenly doubled over screaming in pain. She gently pushed Nightwing off her lap as she staggered away. Selena was at her side supporting her in an instant.

"Get Nightwing out of here!" She called and Connor was the 1st one to get past the confusion and he climbed up the vines towards where Nightwing was lying.

"Hey Wing, I gotcha." Connor soothed as he gently picked up his brother in his arms like he was holding a baby. He had done this one too many times for Dick after missions gone wrong.

"We have Nightwing, we are heading back." Aqualad contacted the cave and the tower.

"Thank god." Robin and Batgirl both sighed from their places in the cave. They hated being stuck behind when the mission was so important, so personal. "Bring him home now."

"Got it." Karen agreed as Connor joined the group with Nightwing in his arms. His mouth moved like he wanted to speak but the pollen in his veins wasn't allowing him to do so.

Rocket, Zatanna, Megan, Cassie and Karen all surrounded Superboy and Nightwing inspecting his shape. They all got dangerous looks on their faces as they saw the shape the teen was in.

"Oh Wing." Megan sighed brushing his bangs off his forehead. "We got you and with our labs we can get this pollen out of you faster."

"Hey Wing, we got you. No one is going to get to you." Beast Boy whispered to Nightwing touching his arm reassuringly like he used to back in Jump City. Garfield liked to think that Dick gave him a smile but he couldn't be sure.

"Where is the closet Zeta tube?" Jamie asked into his com.

"Two blocks away and you better get moving." Robin reported.

"Thanks Rob." Mal grinned and looked over at where Cat Woman, Wonder Woman, Black Canary and Poison Ivy were all gathered.

"Go." Black Canary nodded and Connor took off running with Nightwing cradled carefully in his arms. The rest of the team followed close behind, ready to take down anything or anyone who was in their way!

* * *

_Mount Justice_

"**Recognized Nightwing B-01, Aqualad B-03, Superboy B-04, Miss Martian B-05, Zatanna B-07, Rocket B-09, Mal B-010, Bumblebee B-011, Wonder Girl B-012, Beast Boy B-013, Blue Beetle B-014." **

"Nightwing!" Robin cried from his chair as the team returned only to see Connor running by with a limp Nightwing in his arms.

"What happened?" Batgirl questioned the team as the originals plus Zatanna and Beast Boy rushed after Connor. Cassie explained what happened with help from Karen and Mal.

"So Ivy wasn't in control when she took Wing?" Batgirl clarified.

"It looks that way yes." Jamie admitted.

"So… I got word that Batman and the others are back from their away mission… Who wants to be the lucky one to tell him what happened?" Robin spoke up from a screen he was looking at.

"Good luck guys!" Mal gave them a two-fingered salute before disappearing from the main area with the others.

"Gee thanks." Batgirl rolled her eyes. "Mount Justice to Watchtower… Batman we have a situation… It is involving Nightwing…"

* * *

_Gotham_

"Breathe Ivy and fight whatever is controlling you!" Selena urged Ivy with all her heart. "Come back to your senses!"

"I-I am trying!" Ivy cried before screaming as she clutched her head as Selena, Diana and Dinah surrounded her.

"For Nightwing, you are part of his family and I know he won't hold this against you. Think of him, think of our pact and reclaim your body again!" Diana urged and Ivy let out one more piercing scream before she collapsed onto the floor panting heavily.

"Over there!" Dinah cried, activating her canary screech towards the rafters in the corner. A crash sounded as a body fell to the ground; the other women were on the figure in an instant.

"Who are you? Why did you do this?" Diana smashed her fist into the man's gut.

"I am the puppeteer! I seek vengeance against Nightwing as he put my little brother in jail and he died there!" The man cried in outrage.

"He was doing his job, it is not his fault your brother died IN jail!" Selena seethed. "Leave him to me and Ivy. Go check on Nightwing and tell us how he is faring, leave this puppeteer to us and the others in our group."

"We will contact you as soon as we get word of his condition." Black Canary agreed and the two leaguers slowly left the warehouse to head to the closet Zeta Tube back to Mount Justice.

"Now as for you, no one hurts our little bird." Selena cracked her whip.

"And using me to hurt him? That is unforgivable." Ivy hissed as her vines rose up behind her as if feeding off her anger at the man who forced her to hurt her little bird.

Screams were heard from the warehouse for the next few hours as the females took their anger out on the Puppeteer. When the police collected him for Arkham he was going in a body cast and Harley and some other females inside the building made sure he stayed in it for a few months. After all a pact was a pact.

* * *

_Mount Justice_

Connor looked down at the pale form of Dick Grayson lying on the hospital bed, an IV inserted in his arm as the antidote for the two pollen's slowly overtook the pollen's that were already in his blood stream. He was slowly regaining the ability to move his body and his mind was clearing.

Connor was gently cleaning and wrapping Nightwing's injured fingertips, as he was the only one who saw the damage done on the lid of the box.

"Con…" Nightwing croaked out slowly getting feeling back in his lips.

"I'm here Wing, we all are. We got you." Connor soothed shooting a look at the others in the room.

"But…" Nightwing was trying to warn them.

"Slade isn't here Wing, no one can hurt you here." Beast Boy rushed to Nightwing's side taking his hand in his.

"Not…Here?" He asked in a quiet voice turning his head to Beast Boy.

"Not here, he's gone. He can't hurt you, we all are here and I bet Bats is on his way as we speak." Beast Boy comforted his older brother.

"Kay… BB." Nightwing sunk further into the bed he was lying on, as he seemed to be able to rest easier now.

"This Slade really seemed to have an effect on Wing…" Zatanna whispered to Miss M and Aqualad looking worried.

"If he wants to tell us, he will." Aqualad said in a no argument tone of voice.

"How is he?" Black Canary asked as she and Wonder Woman rushed into the med bay.

"Healing." Miss Martin smiled at the two leaguers.

"That is good to hear." Diana let her shoulders slump in relief.

"What happened with Ivy?" Zatanna asked and Nightwing turned his head showing he was listening as well.

"Something…Wrong…With…Her…" Nightwing rasped out.

"There was, she was being controlled by a man who called himself the Puppeteer. According to him, you put his little brother in jail where he died later on and decided to use Ivy to take revenge on you." Black Canary explained softly.

"Knew…It." Nightwing breathed out his whole body relaxing. "She…Ok?"

"She's fine, angry at him and I'm sure her and Cat Woman are taking their anger out on him as we speak." Wonder Woman smiled.

"Good…" Nightwing sighed closing his eyes.

"Rest now little one." Diana pressed a kiss to his forehead before leaving the room to contact Selena and Ivy to tell them Dick was better now.

"**Recognized Kid Flash B-02, Artemis B-06, Red Arrow B-08." **The Zeta tubes lit up with golden light as the two 'retired' super-teens stepped out.

"Wally, Artemis, RA! What are you doing here?" Batgirl asked spinning around slowly in her chair as to not hurt her legs. Robin didn't even acknowledge the other two as he was on the phone to Agent A.

"Nightwing was supposed to meet up with us three hours ago." Red Arrow crossed his arms, he was sporting some new facial hair and Batgirl didn't really like how it made him look like a hobo.

"He better have a freaking amazing excuse." Wally grumbled looking put out.

"Does being kidnapped, trapped in a box 6 feet underground for 6 hours while seeing his worst nightmares count as an 'amazing' excuse?" Robin snapped as he hung up his communicator turning to send a bat glare at the trio.

The room became so silent you could hear a pin drop.

"What?" Artemis gasped, worry crossing her face more intensely than it had before.

"You heard me." Robin turned his back to the group.

"Where is he?" Red Arrow asked his eyes wide under his mask.

"Is he okay?" Wally asked trying his hardest not to go into speedster talk.

"Med Bay and he will be in time." Batgirl assured the trio but blinked, as they were gone, running down the hallway towards the Med Bay.

"Do you think they will be able to get past Connor and the others?"

"I highly doubt it." Robin snickered bring up the video feed so the two bats could watch the show go down.

"All we need is to throw Batman into the mix and we could sell tickets to this." Batgirl commented and froze as the Zeta tubes started to whir.

"**Recognized Batman 01." **

"Where is he?" Batman's voice boomed.

"Med Bay." Robin pointed down the hall and Batman strode down the pointed hallway with his cape billowing out behind him.

"I feel like this could go either really well or really badly." Batgirl swallowed turning her attention to the video feed.

"I think we should wait until the dust settles to go see Wing…" Robin said slowly.

"Agreed." Batgirl agreed quickly.

* * *

"Wing…" Wally gasped from the entrance to med bay as he saw the pale form of his best friend hooked up to machines.

"Why didn't any of you call us? We could have helped!" Artemis demanded looking at Megan and Zatanna.

"It was a team problem and all three of you made it pretty clear when you walked away that you didn't want anything to do with the team." Connor spoke up glaring at the newly arrived trio. "Now if we can take this conversation someplace else, I don't want to wake Wing."

"Fine." Wally gritted out and walked out of the room with Red Arrow, Artemis, Zatanna, Beast Boy, Miss M, Aqualad.

Connor pulled Nightwing's weapons out of his cargo pants and rested them on the table within arms reach of Nightwing.

"I held onto these, thought you would like them back…" Connor said shyly not looking at his sleeping friend. He didn't want him to know he had them the whole time, for some reason it seemed too personal to share with anyone even Nightwing. Connor slowly walked towards the entrance. Batman was coming towards him at a quick pace.

"Look after him." Connor nodded at Batman.

"…Connor…" Batman started looking at the clone.

"You are welcome." Connor smirked knowing what Batman wanted to say but never would. Batman grunted and entered the med bay pulling up a chair to wait by his eldest son. Wolf entered the room moments after Batman before placing his huge white head on top of Nightwing's stomach gently whining softly.

Connor smiled, Nightwing would be well looked after before he wiped the smile off his face and went to the gym where the whole team (old and new) was waiting.

"When I get back to Gotham I'm paying this Puppeteer a visit." Batman grumbled, he had been briefed by Wonder Woman and Black Canary as well as getting a call from Cat Woman and an upset Poison Ivy. So he was in the loop about what happened and he swiped the recording device and listened with a heavy heart.

"I won't look into Slade, he is part of your life when you left for Jump and I don't want to intrude on it…I just want you to know… I always knew where you were when you left Gotham…" Batman had removed his cowl become Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson's father and let his emotions come out slowly.

"I'll… Be…Fine…B." Dick whispered, Bruce looked up surprised that his son was awake still. Wolf yapped and licked Dick's fingers softly. "Hi…Wolf." He giggled quietly.

"Don't talk, sleep. We have plenty of time to talk later." Bruce pushed Dick's messy hair off his forehead.

"Promise?" He asked in a raspy voice.

"Promise, now sleep or I'll get Agent A in here with his concoction of drugs." Bruce teasingly threatened.

"Yes sirrr." Dick slurred as he closed his eyes once more and by the steady beeping of his heart monitor Bruce could tell his son had truly fallen asleep. Bruce settled back into his seat letting his mind wander about how he was going to make the Puppeteer pay for what he did to his son.

"Want to help me hunt down the man who did this?" Bruce asked Wolf who had moved to curl up by Bruce's feet. Wolf looked up and yapped twice before smiling exposing his sharp fangs. "I take that as a yes." Bruce chuckled rubbing behind Wolf's ears. The two then settled in to watch over Dick until his son was awake and back to his normal self.

* * *

"What happened out there?" Artemis asked wringing her hands, she hated seeing Dick hurt and he looked pretty bad in the med bay.

"A man known as the Puppeteer was controlling Poison Ivy, in order to save Robin and Batgirl… Nightwing gave himself up to her. This man sent us a video using Ivy showing Nightwing being buried alive. He was also injected with a hallucination and he saw many different things… We heard him reacting to most of them on a tape recorder we found…" Aqualad reported and Beast Boy hugged himself clenching his scared hand tightly.

"Cat Woman then appeared and with her help we found Nightwing and Poison Ivy, we grabbed Nightwing and brought him back here while Wonder Woman, Black Canary and Cat Woman helped Poison Ivy throw off the control on her body." He finished and those who had been there shuddered; now just realizing how close they were to loosing Nightwing.

"I am glad you got him back, I just wish…" Red Arrow trailed off, coming to terms with what he left behind when he went to search for the original Speedy. He left his little brother behind; he knew Dick would forgive him but Red Arrow wasn't sure if he could forgive himself.

"I know." Connor said placing a hand on Red Arrow's shoulder seeing how his body slumped. He knew that Roy (clone or not) cared about Dick like a brother just as he did and could sympathize with what he was feeling.

"Thanks…" The two clones gave awkward smiles at each other.

"I still don't get why you didn't tell us, we could have helped." Wally huffed.

"Think about it Wally, if we call you in every time Nightwing is in trouble, you would be part of the team once more. You left for a normal life and that doesn't include coming back to find a missing team member." Aqualad tried to explain it as gently as he could.

"Besides he has us to watch his back." Cassie gestured to the new members of the team beside her.

"And you did a great job of it, thank you." Artemis smiled at the new team.

"You are welcome." Jamie puffed out his chest, holding it out for a few moments before he let it sag exhaling loudly gaining giggles from the girls in the room.

"Damnit…" Wally rubbed his hands down his face. "Sorry for snapping just…"

"We understand old friend, it is not easy to stand on the sidelines. The best thing you do for Nightwing now is to be by his side as he recovers." Aqualad placed his hand on Wally's shoulder.

"I will." Wally promised.

* * *

They all promised that no matter what they would be there for each other, so when Nightwing and Aqualad came to Artemis and Wally about their deep cover plan they agreed and hoped for the best.


End file.
